Baby Shower Cupcakes

Top tier of the stand

This weekend was my first big order. I was hired to bake 5 dozen cupcakes for a baby shower. It was five different types - vanilla/strawberry, cookie dough, chocolate chip/chocolate, red velvet, and chocolate/peanut butter. To say this was a learning experience is definitely an understatement. Initially I was having a problem where some of the cupcakes were rising way over the pans and spilling over and some of them were not rising at all. I was tearing out my hair, about to cry, and ready to give up my dreams of being a professional cupcake baker, when I finally diagnosed the problem being with the oven. I suspect that the temperature was fluctuating, causing these problems. Sure enough, once I switched to the bottom oven (we have a double oven at my house), there were no more problems. Unfortunately, it took 4 batches of cupcakes that saw their way to the bottom of the trash can before I figured it out. All in all, I think they came out really well. I ate some of the "rejects" for breakfast (I had gotten up at 6 am to start baking), and even the mangled ones tasted great.

I made that cupcake stand!

I've been getting a lot more large orders coming up. It's really exciting, especially since all this started about a month ago. Although I've been baking basically since I can reach the stove (which contrary to popular was NOT last year...), but my first cupcakes I made not from a box were only last August. I'm really looking forward to taking more orders, trying more recipes and hopefully this all leads to my own cupcakery.

S'Mores Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes last Thursday night to bring to work but got excited about the prettier cupcakes I made this weekend and posted those first. While these cupcakes are definitely not as beautiful as the flower ones, they were pretty awesome. I had first attempted S'mores cupcakes this past summer, and wasn't thrilled with the results. I tweaked the recipe a bit for the reattempt and was much happier.

For the base, I used a mixture of crushed graham crackers, melted butter, and a tiny bit of sugar. I pushed that into the bottom of cupcake liners, and then poured the chocolate cake batter over it. Last time I made these, I used plain chocolate frosting (being a "vanilla girl," this is probably why I wasn't crazy about the first cupcakes) with a toasted marshmallow on top. This time, I used a 7 minute frosting (it's made by cooking egg whites, sugar, corn syrup and water over a double boiler) because the taste and consistency is basically marshmallow. I sprinkled some leftover graham crackers on top.

Extra cupcake sitting on my desk

Making the frosting was pretty cool. My friend Todd and I were standing over this double boiler, watching the initial mixture and thinking there was no way it would be enough frosting for 16 cupcakes nor taste and look like marshmallow. Paula Deen did not let me down though, and within 7 minutes, it was white, shiny and fluffy.

My friend Todd modeling the cupcakes

I made these with a dark chocolate cupcake recipe with less sugar (ok, full disclosure: so really there was less sugar because I was slightly tipsy while baking and mismeasured the sugar). It actually worked out pretty well, and I think it was a more "adult" cupcake with a sophisticated flavor.

First Time Playing with Fondant

I love cake decorating shows like Ace of Cakes on Food Network and Amazing Wedding Cakes on WE. One of my favorite elements of these shows is watching them roll out and use the fondant. Fondant is a smooth, shiny sugar-based covering for cakes. I ordered some online from www.fondantsource.com last week. While you can make your own fondant, most professional bakers suggest buying it because it's easier and tastes the same as homemade.

The flowers are iridescent

I was so excited when my fondant came in last Wednesday, but I had to wait until the weekend to play with my new toys. I went a bit overboard with buying cake supplies this week, and spent over $150, which is pretty ridiculous. Friday after work, I rolled out some of the fondant for the flowers I wanted to have on my cupcakes. My initial impressions of the fondant were how smooth-feeling it was and also how easy it was to roll out. I cut out the flowers using cutters and then put them in an empty egg carton carton so they dried in a more natural curved shape.

Today I resumed this set of cupcakes. The flowers had dried nicely, and I painted them with a mixture of lemon extract and luster dust. I covered the tops of the cupcakes I had baked (chocolate chip) with a layer of buttercream and then fondant. Then I placed the finished flowers and some leaves on the tops. These are definitely the fanciest cupcakes I've ever made.

The teal one was my favorite

Purple flowers

I'm thinking about attempting some larger, fondant-covered cakes in the future. I took a bunch of cake decorating books out of the library and am now wishing I had some occasions to bake for.